Taking Initiative

It’s easy to outsource responsibility to others – but at the end of the day, it’s about taking initiative and assuming personal responsibility.

Only you can take that proverbial next step forward, it’s a mark of your initiative, the antithesis to stagnation.

Psychologists often talk about an internal and external locus of control.

If you have an internal locus of control, the suggestion is that you tend to assume personal responsibility for just about everything.

Even for things that are beyond your control (which isn’t always healthy).

On the other hand, if you maintain an external locus of control – it means that it’s always someone else’s fault.

Literally nothing is within your control.

There’s a danger in this case that a victimhood mentality can set in, as nothing is within your sphere of influence, neither what happens to you, nor what you do about it.

So it makes it easy to project almost everything that happens in your life onto someone or something else.

The economy.

Bad teachers.

Your parents.

Your past.

The political situation.

No one cares.

You always have bad luck.

The world is out to get you.

And so the story goes on.

My point being, you need to get clear on what you can and cannot control.

The fact is, you can’t control everything, so you shouldn’t put that kind of pressure on yourself.

On the other hand, you do have much more influence over your own life and circumstances than you might realise, so it might be about time you take some initiative and assume at least some of the responsibility.

The reality being, if you don’t, nothing will ever change.

No doctor, or retreat, or healer, or coach can do it for you.

They may inspire you, guide you, provoke you, teach you, but at the end of the day, it’s really up to you.

You and your own initiative to make things happen.

To build and maintain healthy relationships.

To communicate effectively.

To pay attention to the things that matter.

To take that all-important next step forward and there’s always that next step!

Sorry to say, but whoever told you life was meant to be easy, straight out lied to you, or had no idea what they were talking about.